- Yo, what's up guys and welcome back.
Today we're gonna look at a few decks of cards
that are very interesting.
Now, a lot of you out there don't understand
that there is a whole industry of playing cards.
There's a playing card community,
collectors, magicians, cardists,
actually a huge market out there for playing cards.
Today, we're gonna focus on two decks
that have come to my attention.
The first is a deck by October's Very Own, Drake.
That's right, your favorite pop star
is now into designing and printing playing cards.
And the next deck we're gonna look at
is the Gold Edition Split Spades by David Blaine.
Well, I'm a fan of both of these artists.
Rocking some OVO merch right now
and David Blaine, obviously, a big inspiration.
But when it comes to playing cards,
that's where I draw a land in the sand,
especially with Drake.
Here's the thing, these cards were launched
a couple weeks ago on his website for $22, USD.
I actually picked mine up from eBay
which was like flipped to the next day at $50.
So we're gonna have a look and see
what the hype is all about.
I'm gonna be honest,
when I took these cards outta the tuck case,
well, before I even took them outta the tuck case,
I had a look at the tuck case,
and I couldn't feel anything other than disappointment.
Very, very lazy.
If you look at the tuck case,
you're gonna see the big Bicycle logo,
which is interesting to me 'cause I'm like,
okay, he went out and printed with
United States Playing Card Company,
which is the best quality playing cards on the planet,
which I appreciate, that's very cool.
But then you start to look at the tuck case,
you start noticing there's literally
no attention to anything.
Like he didn't care one bit.
He literally had someone in his entourage be like,
"Yeah, you go make cards," done.
The OVO playing cards also came with this,
a really beautiful envelope,
which obviously was done right (chuckling).
Inside there was the receipt,
but there was a really cool sticker, the OVO sticker,
which I thought matched the card clip that I already had,
so I slapped that on a card clip
and I think it looks pretty cool.
Look at the box here,
so on the side you have air cushioned finished,
(speaking foreign word),
on the other side you have USPCC fine print on the side,
come on!
Fine print?
You don't need to put that there.
Also, nothing on the bottom.
The seal is just a normal black USPCC seal,
super cheap.
No embossing on this tuck case, no gold foiling,
very lack luster, absolutely garbage.
If you open up the box as well,
you got more fine print on the inside of the tuck flap.
Again, completely unnecessary.
As someone who prints playing cards,
you do not need to put that fine print on there.
So, not sure if you are aware, but now you are.
So let's have a look at the cards.
By the way, this deck, this box,
looks like something you would give away at a trade show.
And the fact that you sell these for $22 on your site,
these probably cost you (jingling coin)
about 70 cents to make,
you could've at least added some personalization
or just some more attention to the detail.
♪ Knows and I feel left out ♪
- It's just super crappy.
That's right guys, you're getting a rant today, alright?
I'm not all about promoting stuff,
sometimes things just rub me the wrong way.
Cards themselves, now,
they feel nice because they are USPC,
they have a nice stock to them,
they feel like they were crushed,
as well, so I do appreciate that,
although I'm not exactly sure 'cause I'm not a scientist.
In this deck, you get four Jokers,
and you get one of them where the guy,
instead of laughing, he's crying.
And then you get the identical same thing twice over.
Again, zero creativity,
just throw the same thing on the other two cards.
You could've put a link to your website,
maybe a song lyric, huh?
Maybe a bottle of champagne, Champagne Papi,
that would've been interesting.
See, these ideas, they're just coming to me, naturally.
And I'm not even that creative.
Like, you have a whole team of creative people
you could've thought of.
The cards themselves are black on the faces and the backs,
the reason I don't like that
as someone who plays with playing cards
is because as soon as you rough them up a little bit,
the sides become dinged
and you start seeing these white marks as the underlayer.
It's not black cardboard, it's white cardboard, white paper,
so you're gonna see that start to come out,
so they look kinda poopy after awhile
and this is the reason I never printed
like a black faced deck.
Every single card has a little owl in the corner,
I think that's the one thing they went out and did,
I was like, yeah!
Now, now they're cool.
But there is no special Aces, period.
There are no special court cards,
they're all standard court cords, look like this.
(sighing)
That's it, that's it.
On the back design,
if we have a look at the back design here,
I do actually like the back design comparatively
to the rest of the deck.
I think the back design
is where they might've done some work,
they added that little owl to traditional,
what looks like Bicycle back design.
And for those of you who like traditional looking decks,
this is very nice.
I personally believe that this would've been great
in like white and gold,
or even just a white card stock and then any other color,
black, maybe, red, whatever.
It would've looked traditional,
it would've been funner to the eyes.
Yeah, these almost look like they were just intended
to be a prop in one of his videos for two seconds,
and then he just sold the rest 'cause he needed one deck.
I kinda feel like that's what went into this.
Here's how I really feel (chuckling).
I've purchased stuff from OVO,
but now it puts into question, like,
I don't know anything about clothes,
I don't know anything about fashion,
like material and the attention of quality.
I just buy things that look nice,
feel nice and make me feel good.
Other than that,
I have no technical knowledge behind fashion whatsoever.
So, there's no way of me knowing
whether his clothes are of good quality,
but you're not fooling me,
I do know a thing or two about playing cards.
It just makes me believe
that if this is the type of attention
you put into your cards with a crazy mark up,
how do I know that's not what you're doing
with your clothes, as well?
That's kinda how I feel about the business.
So, this is complete garbage,
and in the garbage bin is exactly where it belongs.
So (clanging metal).
Next!
Alright, now that I've gotten that out of my system,
I feel quite elated.
It feels good to (bleeping) on playing cards
every now and then (chuckling),
especially when it's somebody with so much money.
You have a never-ending supply of money.
Just make a high quality deck and sell it for $100.
At least the perceived value is there.
Okay, enough, enough, next deck here we go!
This deck was sent to me by JB Playing Cards,
the folks over at JB Playing Cards,
they curate and sell playing cards
and they made me a little gift box
and in this was a deck that I did not have,
which was the David Splade, David Splade's,
David Splade's Split Blaines.
The David Blaine's Split Spades (chuckling) Gold Edition.
This is a work of art.
Like, let's really, you know,
I couldn't leave you guys with a sour taste in your mouth.
Look at the tuck case here.
The embossing is just beautiful.
The attention to embossing, the fact that like,
not everything is embossed in the same depth,
you have different depths of embossing,
which is like crazy attention to detail there
on behalf of the designer and the printer.
The gold foil and the white just look immaculate.
Like, this is the nicest tuck case
I've seen in my life, period.
And I'm not blowing smoke up David's butt,
this is just, if you've seen this for yourself,
you would probably agree.
On the side you have The United States Playing Card Company
with a nice little gilding around it,
the Split Spades on the front of the tuck case
and on the other side The Official Split Spades Cards
distributed by Split Spades, New York, New York.
And you have the back design in gold embossed on the back.
As soon as you open up the tuck case,
again, you get another surprise!
You get this beautiful golden eagle
with these little symbols which is amazing
and then again, yet again,
he hits you back with a nine of hearts reveal
on the side of the tuck case
as you can see embossed beautifully.
What a great idea.
He always has this little surprise on a tuck case
and I appreciate his consistency and attention to detail.
Let's look at the cards.
The backs are gold foiled with metal lux, they look great.
The detail is a little bit smudged
because of the gold, you have a hard time seeing it,
but I'll let that slide
because it is quite an intricate design.
The ad cards, there are three of them.
You have a frog playing around I guess
with what looks to be french fries on a string,
I don't know?
You got a frog, you got a fish,
then you got like two angels playing around with time,
which is really cool,
and then you have David's logo in gold
and all three of these are really beautifully done.
As you can see, the design,
it's just nice little works of art on pasteboards,
which I really like.
You also get an extra duplicate,
and it's not really duplicate,
I suppose you can use it as a duplicate.
But it's David, his King of Spades card,
but it also has his Instagram link and his website,
so I guess he thought to himself,
"Well, I might as well just print a business card
"if these are gonna be my cards,
"and I can hand this out," which I thought was cool.
Also, the knives that he's holding,
the swords are blank compared to the other King of Spades.
I guess that's so he can write something within that,
I don't know.
I don't know the reason for that, that's very interesting.
Ace of Spades, again, you'll find the same Ace of Spades
on the regular Split Spades, except gold,
which features a woman or a lion,
depending on how you look at it.
It's a very cool illusion.
The cards do come in Mnemonica Stack,
which is appreciated.
And there is also a reveal
if you look on the Queen of Spades,
I believe here, let's have a look.
Queen of Spades is holding a three of clubs,
which is very cool.
So you got an extra little magic trick there for you,
and that's it.
The rest of the cards also feature a, I believe,
yeah, a metallic gold on the court cards,
which is very cool,
as well as his friends' faces on all of the court cards.
Let's take these out for a spin and see how they feel.
(vibrant music)
They feel great.
They feel incredibly great.
They're just like any other Split Spade's deck that he has.
The crush soft feels really great.
The cards handle super well.
Probably one of the favorite decks that David's made.
I really appreciate them.
I'm still a big fan of the Series B, White Lions,
but these are definitely coming close.
So guys, those are the two decks that I showed you today.
Let me know in the comments what you think.
Obviously disappointed with the OVO playing cards.
Never purchasing anything from that site again.
I like Drake's music, I listen to Drake, it's fine.
I just don't trust his judgment
when it comes to delivering quality
for the price that you're paying,
especially now that we have this proof.
So, just kinda biased on that.
However, the David Blaine cards are incredible.
They look incredible and they are made for someone
who appreciates playing cards.
And when you're paying money,
I don't even know how much these are selling for,
but I'd be willing to pay $50 for this deck,
much more than that deck.
Let me know what you guys think below in the comments.
Thanks for watching.
Make sure you stay tuned for Monday's video.
We got a magic video coming up.
And then Wednesday,
we're looking at another puzzle
as the upload schedule continues.
Guys, have a great weekend, I'm off to an early start,
we'll see ya then, peace, alright.
- [Woman Offscreen] (foreign language word spoken)
(upbeat music)
(foreign language word spoken)
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